Former policeman charged over child porn

A FORMER police officer who ran police community youth clubs in at least
three NSW country towns has been charged with 29 child pornography offences.

Gregory Minehan, 39, was arrested as part of the national crackdown on a
pedophile network by Strike Force Pyrmont in December.

According to a police document tendered in court, he sent numerous text
messages and emails, and had telephone conversations with associates in which he
talked about sex with boys, including discussing what they would pay the child.

In one conversation he also allegedly asked a 14-year-old about his sexual
experiences, leading to a charge he was "grooming" the boy for sexual
activities.

In August last year he allegedly sent a text message to a 17-year-old
associate telling him he had signed the cast on a boy's broken leg with the word
"Idolman" and the "Boylover" logo. While he had done so he had been able to see
inside the boy's shorts, seeing his briefs, he informed his associate. In
another text message three weeks later he told another associate he was
attending a wedding and planned to offer oral sex to a 14-year-old boy he had
met.

Minehan has worked as a police officer in Armidale, where he was attached to
the PCYC. He later left to run the PCYCs at Muswellbrook and Kempsie. He is
understood to have left the police about three years ago, and was last working
as an asset protection officer for Coles Myer for whom he travelled around the
state.

Police allege Minehan, who was under physical and technical surveillance by
police, is connected to a network of pedophiles producing and sharing illicit
material.

The network, which tried to identify and gain access to potential victims,
also shared information on how to avoid detection by police.

Last September he allegedly met a person at a shopping centre in Rhodes.
Their conversation was intercepted by police and Minehan allegedly showed the
person sexually explicit material involving children on his laptop before
copying material from his flash drive onto another flash drive.

Minehan is facing 18 charges of transmitting or disseminating child
pornography, nine charges of possessing it, one charge of producing it and one
charge of using a carriage service to groom a person under 16 for sexual
activity.